Honduras kids see better life on soccer field

Published 1:59 pm, Monday, December 29, 2014

Children play soccer in the Progreso neighborhood of Tegucigalpa. A program there keeps kids from joining drug gangs.

Children play soccer in the Progreso neighborhood of Tegucigalpa. A program there keeps kids from joining drug gangs.

Photo: Esteban Felix / Associated Press

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Children watch as sawdust is used to cover blood spilled after a murder. Nearly 1,000 children were killed this year.

Children watch as sawdust is used to cover blood spilled after a murder. Nearly 1,000 children were killed this year.

Photo: Esteban Felix / Associated Press

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In this Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014 photo, a youth trains in a dusty soccer field at the Progreso neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It’s been six months since any of the 50 children who train with coach Luis Lopez two hours a day, five days a week, has been murdered in a country where nearly 1,000 children were killed this year. Nor have they joined the street gangs that control their neighborhoods and use children to collect extortions, store and sell drugs and even commit murder. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) less

In this Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014 photo, a youth trains in a dusty soccer field at the Progreso neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It’s been six months since any of the 50 children who train with coach Luis ... more

Photo: Esteban Felix / Associated Press

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In this Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014 photo, 11-year-old Maynor Ayala, center, sits on a dirt mound, with his friends in the Progreso neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Maynor’s father wants him to make the illegal trip north to join him in the United States. But for now, Maynor choses to stay with his mother and play soccer with his friends. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) less

In this Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014 photo, 11-year-old Maynor Ayala, center, sits on a dirt mound, with his friends in the Progreso neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Maynor’s father wants him to make the ... more

Photo: Esteban Felix / Associated Press

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In this Monday, Nov. 22, 2014 photo, 11-year-old Maynor Ayala, drives the ball as he gets ready to take a shot on goal during their first soccer game outside of his neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. A small U.S. foundation learned about coach Luis Lopez’s program to show children a way out of the violence through soccer, and sent money to upgrade the field, buy equipment and rent buses so the children might move around Tegucigalpa to play other teams. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) less

In this Monday, Nov. 22, 2014 photo, 11-year-old Maynor Ayala, drives the ball as he gets ready to take a shot on goal during their first soccer game outside of his neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. A ... more

Photo: Esteban Felix / Associated Press

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In this Friday, Nov. 28, 2014 photo, children of the "Goal for Life" project play street soccer at the Progreso neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The project that Luis Lopez created a year ago on a dusty soccer field in a rough neighborhood of Tegucigalpa is doing well. Lopez started the program to keep younger kids from joining the adolescents who gathered around the dirt patch to smoke marijuana, sniff glue and recruit youngsters to run errands for the gangs. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) less

In this Friday, Nov. 28, 2014 photo, children of the "Goal for Life" project play street soccer at the Progreso neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The project that Luis Lopez created a year ago on a dusty ... more

Photo: Esteban Felix / Associated Press

Honduras kids see better life on soccer field

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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The project that Luis Lopez created a year ago on a dusty soccer field in a rough neighborhood of Tegucigalpa is doing well.

It’s been six months since any of the 50 children who train with Lopez two hours a day, five days a week, has been murdered in a country where nearly 1,000 children were killed this year. None has left the team to migrate to the United States, where in 2014 border authorities arrested more than 8,000 Honduran children as they tried to reunite with parents working there.

Nor have they joined the street gangs that control their neighborhoods, using children to collect extortions, store and sell drugs and even commit murder.

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This is progress in a neighborhood called Progreso, albeit one so fragile Lopez is hesitant to celebrate.

Lopez started the program to keep younger kids from joining adolescents who gathered around the dirt patch to smoke marijuana, sniff glue and recruit youngsters to run errands for the gangs.

When the small Kahl Foundation, based in Pleasanton, learned about Lopez’s program using soccer to help children out of the violence, it sent money to upgrade the field, buy equipment and rent buses so the children could travel around Tegucigalpa to play other teams.

“My purpose was to focus on youth development where there is an individual passionate about a specific cause, whether it is life skills or positive change, specifically through sports,” said Doug Kahl, the foundation’s president.

Now the children talk about their soccer team at school and to friends in other neighborhoods, who flock to the island of peace in the capital of a country with the highest murder rate in the world.

“The field has created a group, comfort, friendship. It gives them a place to belong, something to care about, something they don’t want to lose,” said Lopez, known affectionately as “Luisito.”

The tough guys have retreated since a new fence and bleachers were built. But Lopez knows that

any appearance of having resources in Honduras can draw threats and extortion.

“The day that one of these guys decides that something about this project goes against them, he’ll come and tell us that it’s all over,” Lopez said.

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